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He had already been convicted of child rape when Bill Gates started hanging out with him. Gates deserves the scrutiny here.

That's probably best discussed on a platform that doesn't have ties to Epstein. He was their largest source of funding for years:

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/peteraldhous/jeffrey-ep...

For those who don't know, John Brockman, the founder of The Edge (https://www.edge.org/memberbio/john_brockman) was deeply involved with Jeffery Epstein:

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/peteraldhous/jeffrey-ep...

https://newrepublic.com/article/154826/jeffrey-epsteins-inte...

Epstein’s other MIT donation came with a lot of privileges and involved people like Joi Ito flying to his residences. This is at the very least something that needs investigating and an official statement.

He got things for that money though. Epstein got to visit the MIT campus, with women in tow. Students were forced to make him a replica of the Disobedience Prize orb. He specifically cited scientists and tech people to intimidate his victims and persuade the police to leave him alone.

You have to look at the other side of the relationship when someone donates. It's not just about taking the money, the person giving it is getting something in return and that's not always a good thing. In Epstein's case, it was tragic.

Epstein cited his relationships with these schools (built through fundraising) repeatedly both to intimidate his victims into silence and convince authorities to let him go. This wasn't a case of him sending a check and walking away, he was extracting a lot of value for his predatory operation from these institutions.

What is ugly is child sex trafficking. The justice system has failed here, hence the public's anger.

They actually did play a role in his non-donation activities. Multiple professors at both schools are credibly accused of participating in Epstein's child sex trafficking. MIT allowed Epstein to bring girls to the campus (Harvard hasn't released enough info to know if he did that there as well). MIT _sent Epstein a Disobedience Prize orb_. MIT leadership worked to actively conceal the donations.

There was a lot of very questionable things going on. They didn't just get a check and call it a day.

He notoriously did not do his time for his crime. He got such a blatantly corrupt sweetheart deal that Acosta had to resign due to it. The lawyer that got him that deal? Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz. Also accused of sexually abusing young girls with Epstein.

I mention in another comment:

Epstein cited his relationships with these schools (built through fundraising) repeatedly both to intimidate his victims into silence and convince authorities to let him go. This wasn't a case of him sending a check and walking away, he was extracting a lot of value for his predatory operation from these institutions. They should face the music for their role in what happened.

Why on earth did this get flagged?

Epstein cited his relationships with these schools (built through fundraising) repeatedly both to intimidate his victims into silence and convince authorities to let him go. This wasn't a case of him sending a check and walking away, he was extracting a lot of value for his predatory operation from these institutions. They should face the music for their role in what happened.

This is the best series of articles I've seen exploring it:

https://www.mintpressnews.com/shocking-origins-jeffrey-epste...

CIA, Mossad and the mafia are all covered. Whitney Webb did a really amazing job researching all of this.

No, it's still a mystery. Right before he died, he moved it all into a trust and named Bill Gate's advisor as his executor:

https://nypost.com/2019/08/20/ex-bill-gates-adviser-shocked-...

Gates himself has a lot to answer for. The MIT emails show Epstein funneling $2M from Gates to Media Lab. He also flew on Epstein's jet to Florida and hasn't answered why.

There actually was a lot of Epstein news that dropped last night (presumably with the idea that the Democrat debates would drown it out):

1. This Harvard statement. "Money's gone, too bad".

2. MIT President Rafael Reif admitted to signing an Epstein thank you note and attending a meeting discussing Epstein's contributions. He also threw his whole staff under the bus.

3. Reid Hoffman admitted to arranging meetings with Epstein on Joi Ito's request. He shockingly threw Ito and unshockingly MIT under the bus.

[2] https://news.mit.edu/2019/letter-regarding-jeffrey-epstein-a...

[3] https://www.axios.com/reid-hoffman-jeffrey-epstein-mit-donat...

EDIT:

This submission is now [flagged]. There's no flame war going on in here to sink it so not sure why it would be removed.

This is a much better article and interview with the whistleblower:

https://www.philanthropy.com/article/whistle-blower-tells-th...

Media Lab knew exactly what they were doing.

Thank you for letting me know! I resubmitted it here with the correct url (couldn't edit this one):

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20899980

mods: you can delete this post

The thing is, high profile business and science people associating and partying with Epstein didn't ruin him, it legitimized him. They didn't just take a check, they invited him into their social and business circles and he intern did the same for them. He went on to continue raping girls during this time period (after his arrest) and the legitimacy these people provided did not help one bit, they basically reintegrated him into power.

I don't think this is that unclear. 99% of people would not invite a convicted child rapist and his entourage of young women to a party, take pictures with them then fly in a private jet (already called the "Lolita Express") to his residences that have already been in the news for being the locations of child rape.

He was already covered extensively in the media for raping under age girls. Brockman brought him to that party and then proceeded to take pictures with a bunch of young women that Epstein brought along.

There was nothing private about it. There was a ton of media coverage at the time about Epstein molesting young girls. Ethan Zuckerman urged Joi Ito not to get involved with him but was ignored:

http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2019/08/20/on-me-and-the-...

Yes, it's not a good idea for high profile people (or anyone really) to work with convicted sex offenders. It was well known at the time that he got off very easy for his crimes. There was a lot of media coverage.

Optically it's bad, morally it's bad. There's also more to this than just "work" as well. If someone was a convicted child rapist, would you invite them and a bunch of young women to your parties and take pictures like this?

https://twitter.com/xeni/status/1165266579560521728

These people also socialized with him and when they accepted money from him it was after he was a convicted sex offender.

Look at Ethan Zuckerman's post on leaving MIT where you can see he urged Joi Ito to not get involved with Epstein because it was already well known that he was abusing underage girls:

http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2019/08/20/on-me-and-the-...

Many of these people traveled on Epstein's jets and visited his houses repeatedly. There's a lot more here than accepting money from a sex offender (which in itself is really awful).

A lot of this information came out last week on Xeni's Twitter account: https://twitter.com/xeni

She's been doing an amazing job digging into Epstein's relationships with the science and tech community (some of it first hand).

For example: https://twitter.com/xeni/status/1165266579560521728

Do you know if Epstein invested in any of those startups?

If you were raising money from Epstein, investing with him and visiting his houses, it's safe to say you were one of the people that were aware of his background. Ethan Zuckerman explicitly stated he warned Ito about Epstein and Ito chose to ignore it: http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2019/08/20/on-me-and-the-...

Raising money from, coinvesting with and visiting the multiple homes of someone isn't "impersonal business transactions". It's a deep relationship with someone who was already convicted of raping a child.

You should read Ethan Zuckerman's resignation post as it offers much more information: http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2019/08/20/on-me-and-the-...

Ito was warned against getting involved with Epstein and he ignored those warnings.

Indeed, people should read Ethan's post as it contains much more content. I'm not even sure why Ito's apology is on HN right now. I submitted this exact same link days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20741961

Shouldn't post this be a dupe?